Braves Retain Fredi Gonzalez, Hire Bo Porter As Third Base Coach

Interim Braves GM John Hart announced today that the team will retain Fredi Gonzalez for the 2015 season and hire recently dismissed Astros manager Bo Porter as a third base/outfield and baserunning coach (Twitterlinks). According to a team press release, assistant hitting coach Scott Fletcher will not be returning to the organization in 2015, and Porter will replace former third base coach Doug Dascenzo. Hitting coach Greg Walker already announced his resignation earlier this week. The remainder of the coaching staff will return, according to the Braves.

The news may not sit well with Braves fans, as many called for Gonzalez to suffer the same fate as recently fired GM Frank Wren following the team’s collapse and offensive struggles. Gonzalez, however, will be retained for a fifth season as the Atlanta skipper. To this point, the Braves are 358-290 under Gonzalez, who has also managed the Marlins and owns a lifetime 634-569 record as a Major League manager.

David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported shortly before the announcement that Porter was expected to join the Braves’ staff (Twitterlinks). As O’Brien noted, Porter has strong ties to Gonzalez after spending three years with him as a coach for the Marlins and playing for him when Gonzalez managed Triple-A Richmond in 2002.

Same old, same old from the Braves. Apparently they are utterly terrified of actually taking the organization in a new (and better) direction. And shame on Gonzalez. Not only is he a horrid manager; he was perfectly willing to throw 3 of his coaches under the bus to save his own hide. How courageous.

Looks as though the Mets may have enough young talent coming (at least on the pitching side) to make up for their management team, though. I *hope* Porter isn’t just being brought on because he’s an old buddy of Fredi’s…I’m hoping he’s there to step in when Fredi gets fired in season next year. But after all these moves, I’m not all that hopeful that that’s the case.

Well he should have thrown one more under the bus …Terry Pendleton….and then put himself in the drivers seat and headed off into the sunset to parts unknown. I can’t take another season of after game “excuse” press conferences and i sure as heck wont spend another dime on this team until they acquire a fiery manager that holds his players accountable. FG and TP need to go.

I was a fan of TP’s in his playing days, but not so much during his tenure as hitting coach, but I will say this for him…the team had much better offensive numbers before he was reassigned than they have had since. But, that could also very well be from the differences in personnel between then and the last 2+ years. I honestly doubt that any hitting coach could change the behavior of a large chunk of the roster the Braves had in 2014.

The Braves have experienced 2/4 record breaking collapses and one very poorly managed postseason series under Fredi Gonzalez. 4th time’s the charm apparently. They needed to clean house this offseason. Our already bad attendance is just going to fall off even more.

What a shame. Im sure Freddie is a good guy and I have nothing against him as a person but come on. Its going to be next to impossible to get rid of some of these guys (players) because of their horrible contracts. Barring some miracle work by the next GM, the same core will be back. These guys have already quit on Freddie. The only shot of changing their attitudes was to get someone in there to light a fire under them. next year……Same club, same manager, same result

I’ve had it with this stubborn good ol boy Braves front office. If they don’t care about their team why should I? Fredi is incapable of managing a big league team. How much more clear can that be? Hart, Schuerholz, Cox, Fredi G: they should all go.

Seems like a short leash for Freddie and an easy out for management. A poor start next year makes Porter the quick replacement and lets the new GM deflect the heat from fans. He then has the choice of keeping Porter or finding a replacement in-season.

I hope you are right about Porter, but the way this thing is turning out so far, I’m not hopeful about that. I think he’s just Fredi’s guy and was available. (shrug) That’s the amount of confidence I have in the people making decisions in this organization (that is, almost zero).

Finally someone sees it. Porter did a good job in a situation in HOU where the GM had a lot more involvement in the team than most. It’s interesting they’re hiring someone as a coach with previous managing experience – and while that’s not uncommon – it’s especially interesting that they’re hiring someone that has a good record in player development, as Schuerholz has noted that we have lacked under Wren, and we need back to “the Braves Way”. I can completely see Porter taking over for Gonzalez during the season, amidst a losing streak.

Awful news for Braves fans. It’s not even the offensive issues that bug me with Fredi Gonzalez, but his decision making in general. Far too often he’ll mismanage the bullpen and soon those 1-0 deficits become 4-0 or 7-0… He was in charge during the collapse in 2011 (burned up the bullpen and essentially ruined Jonny Venters’ career) and also, can’t forget his decision to pitch to Pence with Michael Martinez on deck in Game 162 of that season… Either way, he’s a terrible manager.

This franchise needs to get rid of Bobby Cox, Fredi Gonzalez, and John Schuerholz… People act as if Frank Wren is solely responsible for all the bad signings, well… Guess who was overseeing his moves? Oh yeah, John Schuerholz…

Bo Porter is a winner and a motivator. Freddi and Frank Wren didn’t mix well the same way Bo was with his GM. Doesn’t make anyone wrong or right it just doesn’t work. Let’s let these guys show how they can help the Braves players get it done and judge them at the end of the year. What the Braves need is a stadium full of fans cheering them on, let’s give it our best shot and we will come away winners!

Bobby Cox is probably the best 162-game manager in the past 50 years. However, his magic stopped after the regular season. His in-game decision making was less than stellar, but make no mistake that when Bobby was manager, he got the absolute most out of his players. They loved him, respected him, and busted their rumps like an 8-year old boy would do for his father.

Same thing often happens with me once his fan club shows up. (shrug) Honestly, this decision with Fredi (and Cox’s hand in it) will make not watching them next year a lot easier. Once they get done trading away La Stella and Gattis (it’s coming, sure as night follows the day), then I’ll have zero reason to torture myself with Braves broadcasts.

Agree on the average GM part. Cox did well with drafts — Chipper Jones, Steve Avery, Tom Glavine, David Justice — but aside from the Doyle Alexander trade (which netted John Smoltz) and the Gerald Perry trade (which brought in Charlie Leibrandt), there’s not much to brag about.

The Braves gave up Steve Bedrosian and Milt Thompson for Ozzie Virgil. The Dale Murphy trade freed up right field for David Justice, but unfortunately the Braves gained little in return (and they sent Tommy Greene to Philadelphia, who went 16-4 for the 1993 pennant winning Phils).

Granted, these are two starkly different eras in baseball history, as well as Braves history — Atlanta was not exactly a desired place 30 years ago. Cox was GM in the collusion era, but the most notable free agent signings were Graig Nettles, Darrell Evans and Nick Esasky.

I do believe Cox was part of the push to get rid of the powder blue Braves uniforms and into the current home/away mix. Even 25+ years later, that’s still a good look for them.

I’m sure they’ll trade either JUp or Heyward. Can’t keep both. I watched maybe 10 games the last month. Bad years happen, but these kind of years don’t. Nats are going to be the next Phillies and run off 5 straight if we don’t shake things up.

If they really are serious about getting rid of BJ (and I’m starting to doubt that, given Fredi’s return), they’ll have to package him with someone who is actually worth something. I think you’re right in that either JUp or Heyward is gone sometime next year if not sooner…no way they can pay both of them to stay when they’re still on the hook for all the bad contracts Wren handed out like party favors.

That’s the problem I have with rating managers in general. Was Cox that great a 162-game manager…or did he have a roster full of players who played the game right and made him look that way? (shrug) He surely deserves some credit, but I remain unconvinced of his “greatness” as a manager, either regular season or post-season for sure (where he never seemed to get it that you had to manage with a different sense of urgency in the playoffs). I think most managers get too much credit and blame for how their teams do, with the exception of just a handful of stellar guys whose teams seem to always outperform, and another handful of truly awful guys at the other end of the spectrum who obviously have no earthly idea what they are doing, but sometimes get bailed out by their players anyway (yeah, I put Fredi G in that last group). I don’t think Cox was a bad manager, just overrated…and I think he was much better as a GM (a large chunk of the credit Schuerholz got as GM was due to Bobby’s prior work) than as a manager. Obviously, though I’m not a big fan of his, I’d take him over the current manager in a heartbeat.

I view the Atlanta run in two halves, with Ted Turner being forced out as the midpoint.

In the first half, the Braves playoff hopes were dashed by a key moment or two, be it Lonnie Smith’s base running or Mark Wohlers’ pitch to Jim Leyritz. Perhaps the chips fall the other way, and the Braves have a string of World Series titles to defend.

After Turner was forced out, it was as if the Braves were trying to fill lineup gaps with wire and duct tape. After 2000, the Braves had a gaping hole at first base. There was a bevy of cringe-worthy replacements — Wally Joyner, Rico Brogna, Ken Caminiti and finally Julio Franco. Chipper Jones goes to left field for two so-so years of Vinny Castilla. Rotation gaps are plugged with retreads like Russ Ortiz and John Burkett. Bobby Cox was able to squeeze the most out of the team in the regular season, and then they ran out of gas in the NLDS — Atlanta has not advanced beyond the first round since 2001.

His free agent acquisitions were not great in the late 80’s but that team was awful and hard to do much with be it through trades or free agent signings. He was still the General manager when Pendelton and Lonnie Smith were obtained correct? If not They were right after he stepped down as GM.

I’m less apt to fault him on the FA signings in the late 1980s — bear in mind there was the collusion situation for most of that time period, so more often than not, a signing is going to be a result of the previous team parting ways. Evans and Nettles were past 40 when Atlanta signed them. Lonnie Smith was available because Kansas City had released him after the 1987 season, and he wasn’t signed until the middle of Spring Training 1988. In Smith’s case, it was a residual effect of the Pittsburgh drug trials — he was one of the seven that were originally suspended for all of 1986, but had their suspensions reduced by Commissioner Ueberroth. Additionally, Smith’s playing time waned in 1987 with the emergence of Bo Jackson and Danny Tartabull.

From what I can see, Cox turned the reigns over to Schuerholz around the time Russ Nixon was dismissed in 1990. In that 1990 offseason, Schuerholz picked up Pendleton, Sid Bream, Rafael Belliard and Deion Sanders.

You are all forgetting the money. They didn’t have much before Ted and didn’t have yhe flexibility to do much. Its not just about the trades its about the abilities and financial limitations too. Much like this off season. There isn’t any financial flex to get where we need. Thanks to Frank Wren for wasting $125 million on 2 busts in Uggla and Upton

Thanks for clarifying that I wasn’t quite sure when his GM reign ended. For some reason I had it in my head he might have been GM/Manager for a year or so. You certainly remember the things going on with the Braves and Baseball in the late 80s much better than I do.

Absolutely, I use the play index on B-R and the tools on Fangraphs quite a bit for player numbers. I could have looked up the franchise index and found most of what I was asking about on the team and payroll pages. The bullpen has slot of good information on it as well. Next time I won’t be so lazy.

I was just trying to be funny in a self deprecating sense. Baseball reference is the most comprehensive site out there, especially for historical accuracy. The late eighties are a fond time for me. I grew up a Red Sox fan up here in the northeast. The first season I started really watching games was the 85 season when I was 8. I vividly remember that 85 Blue Jays team managed by Cox losing to the Royals the last time they were in the playoffs. I’m rooting for an old school Royals-Orioles ALCS.